The NSIDP congratulates Knowing Neurons for receiving the 2016 Society for Neuroscience Next Generation Award! This award recognizes SfN chapter members who have made outstanding contributions to public communication, outreach, and education about neuroscience. Knowing Neurons is a neuroscience education and outreach website that was created by graduate students at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California. The young scientists of Knowing Neurons, which include NSIDP graduate students Kate Fehlhaber, Joel Frohlich, and Jenn Tribble, explain complicated ideas about the brain clearly and accurately using powerful images, infographics, and animations to enhance written content. With an extensive social media presence, Knowing Neurons has become an important science communication outlet and resource for both students and teachers.

Join us in celebrating their achievement at SfN! Meet the team at their dynamic poster to find out how you can get involved in this award-winning endeavor!

U.S. News & World Reports ranks UCLA's NSIDP as #7 in Best Global Universities for Neuroscience and Behavior.

NSIDP Students Attend SfN’s Capitol Hill Day

This year, two NSIDP students, Andrew Thompson and Jennifer Tribble, joined fellow Society for Neuroscience members at SfN’s Capitol Hill Day. During Hill Day, they had the opportunity to speak to representatives and their staff to advocate for sustained funding to support biomedical research. Specifically, this year Andrew and Jennifer were requesting our representatives to support the increases in NIH and NSF funding, to at least $34.5 billion and $8 billion, respectively.

Not only was it thrilling to spend a day advocating on Capitol Hill, but it was also a valuable lesson in science communication. We practiced and critiqued our elevator pitches for a non-academic audience, and had a chance to discuss our research to non-experts. For anyone interested in science communication or science policy, we would highly recommend this experience!

UCLA Celebrates Brain Awareness Week

UCLA hosts an annual Brain Awareness Week in recognition of the global campaign to increase public awareness of neuroscience and the progress of brain research. The event is organized by a current NSIDP graduate student, who coordinates Project Brainstorm, an outreach group within the Brain Research Institute that makes weekly visits to low-income, low-opportunity K-12 schools all over Los Angeles to teach students about neuroscience.

This year for Brain Awareness Week, 250 5th to 12th graders visited UCLA, where they enjoyed interactive activities hosted by UCLA neuroscience undergraduate and graduate students! Participants explored fundamental neuroscience concepts, such as the different lobes of the brain, synaptic transmission and brain injury, observed sheep brain dissections to learn about parts of the brain as well as brain evolution, and learned popular neuroscience topics, such as the phantom limb syndrome, reflexes versus reaction times, the stroop effect and more! Students also visited different UCLA neuroscience laboratories, interacted with current scientists, and learned about the research process and the principles of various areas of ongoing research.

Brain Awareness Week 2016 could not have been possible without the efforts of previous coordinators, graduate students from neuroscience and other departments, undergraduates from Project Brainstorm, and members from Psych in Action, Interaxon and Project Synapse. The event has received much positive feedback from both the evaluations students filled out at the end of each day as well as verbal comments. Schools have even begun inquiring about participating in next year’s Brain Awareness Week!

UCLA is the home of an outstanding and vibrant neuroscience community, including laboratories in diverse departments in the David Geffen School of Medicine, the College and the Samueli School of Engineering. UCLA offers graduate training in Neuroscience through the Interdepartmental PhD Program for Neuroscience (NS-IDP). The program includes about 150 laboratories in diverse areas spanning the field from molecular analysis to genetics and behavior. Students in the program learn modern problem solving skills and use state of the art approaches to explore a deeper understanding of how the brain processes information. The program, which is part of the larger Bioscience Graduate Program at UCLA typically admits 10-15 students per year that have a genuine interest in the brain and in contributing to solving some of its mysteries.